Image
Ivy/Emmet Corridor

Vision

We envision a fully integrated Center for the Arts at UVA that expands opportunities for students to pursue their creativity through different artistic disciplines while creating a welcoming, inviting, and inclusive arts space to connect and engage our community and visitors.

Current Challenges:

A new Center for the Arts will address a longstanding need for dedicated rehearsal and performance space on Grounds, enhancing both the University and Charlottesville communities. 

Over the past 10 years, the population of Central Virginia has increased by 12%, with the UVA student body steadily increasing as well. The profile of the arts and arts offerings at UVA have also expanded significantly, compounding the demand for facilities to support arts programming and curricula. Annually, over 37,000 tickets to arts events are enjoyed by UVA students, several thousand more by alumni, faculty, and community members - many of these events hosted in spaces outfitted for lectures or classes, not suitable for a high-quality performing arts experience.

For the first time ever in UVA’s history, a Center for the Arts will provide a state-of-the-art, acoustically suitable, 21st-century performance and rehearsal space, addressing the demands of generations of UVA students and the Charlottesville community who have didn’t have the opportunity to utilize spaces designed specifically for music, dance, and large theatrical productions and signaling a bold, new era of creativity, imagination, innovation, and collaboration across Grounds and throughout Central Virginia.

The UVA Center for The Arts will serve the academic mission and connect the surrounding community by:

  • Attracting a global community of artists, enhancing and elevating the arts landscape of central Virginia with an estimated 285 performances annually,
  • Being a high profile, welcoming, and inviting entrance to UVA - one that is physically accessible and inclusive to all - a place for local residents, visitors, and the University community to interact,
  • Providing state-of-the-art spaces for UVA and community organizations to rehearse and perform to their highest artistic potential with appropriate front-of-house and back-of-house features,
  • Increasing the economic prosperity of the region through tourism and job creation,
  • Serving as a hub of creative scholarship and a laboratory for art and creativity in a facility on par with the quality of UVA’s academic programs.

The Performing Arts Center will provide much needed spaces for the expansion of Arts programming, including:

  • 1,100-seat Concert Hall with superior acoustical properties to accommodate national and international touring artists as well as host an array of academic, student life, alumni, and community uses,
  • 150-seat Recital Hall for chamber music and recitals,
  • Highly adaptable Experimental Arts Space utilizing current and emerging technologies for investigations of all kinds,
  • Large Rehearsal Room sized to support main stage performances,
  • Numerous Practice Rooms, and
  • Large, flexible Lobby Space that can be used for events by the University and larger community.

Why Now?

[The performing arts center] will provide the UVA community with new opportunities for participation in the arts. It will also warmly invite the broader community to Grounds through performances by world-renowned artists and our talented students. The performing arts center will be a place that celebrates the arts as fundamental to the human condition, a university education, and a democratic society. 
~President James E. Ryan

Demonstrate Your Support:

Set the Stage for the future of the arts at UVA and the Charlottesville community.

We are calling on our arts leaders to demonstrate support for the Center for the Arts and consider making a gift, which may be pledged over 5 years. Naming opportunities are available for known elements of the Performing Arts Center; however, a full list of naming rights opportunities will be available in late 2022. Gifts of $100,000 or more will be prioritized for a naming opportunity reflecting the investment.

Support the building of the UVA Performing Arts Center

The Performing Arts Center at UVA will expand opportunities for students to pursue their creativity through different artistic disciplines while creating a welcoming, inviting, and inclusive arts space to connect and engage our community and visitors.

For more information please contact: 

UVA Center for the Arts Flyer.pdf